New Orleans Startup AxoSim Awarded $1.77 Million Grant

Julia Ballard

September 14, 2017

AxoSim, a startup that was spun out of Tulane University, has received a $1,770,000 grant over two years to advance their Peripheral Nerve-on-a-chip for Predictive Preclinical Pharmaceutical Testing. The grant was awarded by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Technology Transfer.

Now located in the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, the research, development, and validation of the project will be done alongside Dr. Michael Moore, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Parisa Kordjamshidi, Assistant Professor of Computer Science.

AxoSim tackles critical problems in pharmaceutical development and helps companies develop safer and more effective drugs.

“The pharmaceutical industry knows the drug development cycle is flawed and is seeking improved testing technologies,” shared Dr. Lowry Curley, CEO of AxoSim. “We are already working with a number of early adopters, but for wider industry adoption, we need larger case studies validating the predictive power of organ-on-a-chip technology. This grant comes at a critical time for the industry and will accelerate internal testing efforts for our Nerve-on-a-Chip.”